Coming Soon: "playlist name pending (or; i love everyone and you can too.)"
An introduction to the introduction of a new essay series. by dean (Originally Posted to the Start Press Substack on Dec 23, 2023)
I’ve been thinking a lot about how my life is right now, how it used to be, and how I want it to be going forward. I’ve been thinking about my taste in music (thanks, spotify wrapped) and how I can use my favorite songs to talk about these thoughts.
So, I decided to write some creative nonfiction about all this. I’m calling it “playlist name pending, or; i love everyone and you can, too.”
I ask that you carry no expectation of quality. I always get melancholy around the New Year and I tend to make soft resolutions to improve myself that I never carry out. I always seem scared to improve myself, and I rely on luck to get me through tough times. This is a big issue with my creative side as well. I have no work ethic to get my ideas out into the world. This essay series is an attempt to break myself out of that way of thinking and to build good, healthy momentum for pursuing my dreams. When I ask that you carry no expectation of quality, it’s for my own good. I need to make sure I can give myself the grace to write these things out, give them a few edits, and feel comfortable sharing. I know its not perfect, I don’t want it to be perfect, and you have to know that too!
In a few days (let’s say… the first week of January, 2024) I’ll begin posting playlist “cycles” with an accompanying essay. The playlists and the essays will be as brief as possible (40 minutes of music? Like an album? And like, a 5 minute read? Is that okay?). I hope I won’t take up too much of your time. I hope you read and listen along when you can! I’ll post a cycle maybe once or twice a month. I don’t want to overcrowd your inbox.
I haven’t come up with a name for the playlist overall. That’s real, that’s not a bit. I’m calling it “playlist name pending” because at the end, I want to use my own words to sum it all up. I’m going to use lyrics from each cycle’s playlist as the chapter headings and subtitles. The full project’s subtitle: “or; i love everyone and you can, too,” comes from Tim Roger’s story “meanwhile our shattering animals.” That story is the climax of his wonderful video review of Boku No Natsuyasumi, and his YouTube series Action Button serves as a massive inspiration to me and this project.
Some cycle’s themes will be loose (I’m not even a little bit sure what cycle 1 is “about” and cycle 2 is about “location”). Some cycle’s themes will be incredibly succinct (just thought about one being Weezer’s Blue Album in its entirety). We can explore all kinds of themes and types of music together. Yeah, this series is INTERACTIVE!! It’ll be fun.
There’s no planned ending to the series right now, but when it does wrap up I’ll use Start Press for other series and newslettery type things. Keep an eye out for my quarterly summaries of all the albums I’ve listened to, etc…
That’s all I have to say for now. It’s gonna be messy, it’s gonna be weird, it’s gonna be personal. I want to wish you a warm welcome to…
“playlist name pending (or; i love everyone and you can, too).”